Creating a Culture of Excellence

By Mark Wardell

The universal rule in business is that customers go where they can expect consistency—in both the products they buy and in the level of service they receive. Unfortunately, as a consumer, excellence in both products and service in one location is the exception rather than the rule. Why? Because many business owners don’t realize that in order to achieve consistency in their products and service delivery, they first need to nurture a culture of excellence within their business as a whole.

The term "culture of excellence" describes the culture achieved when a business’ team of employees works together, systematically, to effectively and efficiently accomplish the goals of the enterprise. In other words, it’s what every business owner should be aspiring to. The fact is most owners simply don’t know how to go about putting in place the systems required to make their businesses everything they could be. Following are a few steps designed to help any business nurture a culture of excellence.

Step One: Start with your people. Every great culture begins with people who are a great fit for the organization. This means, staff members who understand the goals of the business owner and are excited about working together as a team to achieve them.

But wait, before you start criticizing your staff, ask yourself if you’ve done a good job of creating an environment that attracts the right kinds of people. What you need is a value-sharing team, so you need to clearly identify what your values are in the first place.

What describes your business' work ethic and personality? Are you a young, fun, energetic team or are you a serious, conservative bunch? What type of values do you uphold on a day-to-day basis? Are you dedicated to excellent service, to bargains, to sustainability, or to supporting local industry? Whatever it is that sets you apart, be as explicit as possible about who you are when you're building your team so you don't waste time meeting people who don't share your values.

Step Two: Restructure your workplace into one that offers people the opportunity to grow. In other words, you need to give your people a reason to go to work in the morning, other than just to collect a paycheque. Done properly, this is what Dr. Anthony Williams, vice-president of Corporate Learning for Coast Capital Savings, calls a "teaching organization." A teaching organization is one in which people are encouraged not only to learn from each other, but to play an active role in educating, supporting and helping everyone else to improve the workplace. This is the type of workplace where everyone is inspired to look for opportunities to make things better.

One way to do this is to hold weekly team meetings/brainstorming sessions where people are given the opportunity to offer solutions to the daily challenges that come up in the store. The trick is to get creative.

Step Three: Constantly share your plans for the future of your business with your team. When you invite your whole team to take part in building your business with you, you create an inspiring environment, which is the type of place top quality employees want to stay. You'll know it's working when you hear your people talking about your store as if they were owners. For example, instead of saying "the store had record sales this week," they'll say "we had record sales this week." The more you hear the words "we," "us" and "our," the better.

It will take some time, but by actively nurturing a culture of excellence, you will build a business that offers opportunities for your team to grow, to be motivated and to contribute in significant ways towards the ongoing development and success of your enterprise.

Mark Wardell is of Wardell Professional Development (www.wardell.biz), an advisory group specializing in value enhancement for privately-held companies.